Officers Debate Gun's Safety

Accidental Shootings By Police Prompt Questions About Pistol

February 14, 1989|By Maya Bell, Sentinel Miami Bureau

MIAMI — The safety of a semiautomatic handgun, used in last month's fatal police shooting of a black motorcyclist in Miami's Overtown neighborhood, is being questioned by some law enforcement agencies.

The Austrian-made Glock gun, which requires less trigger pressure to fire the first shot than other guns, has been involved in several accidental shootings in the state.

Orange County Sheriff Walt Gallagher was warned about the gun before making a decision to order deputy sheriffs not to carry the Glock.

Gallagher made the decision after being advised by Lt. John Daddysman, the department's range master, that an officer under stress could unintentionally fire the gun.

''It has regrettably come to my attention that with the Glock Semi-Auto Pistol in the hands of an officer or deputy sheriff under extreme stress the officer could fire the weapon unintentionally,'' Daddysman wrote to Gallagher. ''There have been too many documented incidents involving officers discharging the Glock unintentionally.''

Gallagher's ruling won't affect many deputies - only three were using Glocks on the job - but it underscores the disagreement in the law enforcement community over the gun's merits.

''There apparently is some concern about their being a fairly sensitive weapon,'' said sheriff's spokesman Jim Solomons. ''From our point of view they don't fit the requirements we would like to have in a semiautomatic weapon.''

The Glock, a 9mm gun with a 17-shot magazine, has become the weapon of choice for many law enforcement agencies that are trading in their six-shot service revolvers for higher capacity semiautomatic pistols. The move has been prompted by the increasingly sophisticated firearms available on the street.

The Florida Marine Patrol and police departments in Miami, St. Petersburg, Coral Gables, Flagler County and Jacksonville use the Austrian-made Glock which became available in the United States three years ago. The Daytona Beach Police Department is switching to Glocks. A number of other departments that allow officers to buy their own semiautomatic pistols are authorizing use of the Glock.

Originally designed as an assault weapon for the Austrian Army, the Glock has a consistent trigger pull - every shot requires the same amount of pressure to fire - and it does not have an external safety mechanism. This means it can be drawn and fired without a lever having to be disengaged manually.

The Glock is considered extremely accurate, durable and easy to maintain. Glocks that had been run over by a truck, cooked in a stove and submerged in salt water for a month still fired in tests performed by Daytona Beach police.

Those wary of the Glock say the absence of an external safety catch and the lighter first-shot trigger pull increases the chances of accidental firing, especially in stressful situations.

Glocks have a trigger pull of 8 pounds, 5 pounds or 3 pounds. The latter is used only in competition. Police departments usually pick the 8-pound pull.

Most other semiautomatics used by law enforcement have a first-shot trigger pull of about 12 pounds, which drops to about 4 pounds on successive shots.

''In my judgment, when people are under stress, true street stress, there is a tendency to tighten up on the weapon,'' said Dick Tengstedt, chief armorer for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. ''That's why we like double-action pressure. We want the first shot to be an intentional shot.''

Glock fans, however, view the very same features as positives. They say the absence of a manual safety is a tactical advantage on the street, especially among officers accustomed to the revolver, which also lacks a manual safety. They believe the Glock's consistent trigger pressure makes the gun more accurate than other semiautomatics that require considerably more trigger pressure for the first shot than successive shots.

''We did extensive research with more than 12 semiautomatics on the market last year, and Glock was our No. 1 choice,'' said Jacksonville Sgt. Pete Mittleman, who is directing the transition to Glocks in Duval County. ''We believe it's the safest gun on the market.''

Mittleman and other proponents insist the accidental shootings reported with Glocks - two of which happened in Jacksonville - were the result of the officer's training or judgment, not the fault of the gun. That is the same conclusion reached last week by a review panel investigating the latest unintentional shooting with a Glock.

In that incident Dec. 18, Stacy Adams, an officer with the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office, shot and killed a teen-ager he was trying to handcuff. Ruling the shooting accidental, the review panel found that Adams' gun discharged because he failed to follow proper felony arrest procedures.

Adams' gun went off as he was leaning into the cab of a stolen pickup and trying to handcuff two men, according to Billy Johnson, director of police operations in Jacksonville.